{"id":4739,"date":"2023-09-13T10:03:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-13T10:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/openworldvc.com\/?p=4739"},"modified":"2023-10-17T18:08:44","modified_gmt":"2023-10-17T18:08:44","slug":"s2-ep7-localization-back-to-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/openworldvc.com\/2023\/09\/13\/s2-ep7-localization-back-to-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"S2 EP7 \u2013 Localization Back to the Future"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Watch the episode on YouTube<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Localization Back to the Future | Open World S02E07\" width=\"1170\" height=\"658\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Cwl-XHJBd1g?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Episode Transcription<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed alignright is-type-rich is-provider-spotify wp-block-embed-spotify wp-embed-aspect-21-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Spotify Embed: S2EP7: Localization Back to the Future\" style=\"border-radius: 12px\" width=\"100%\" height=\"152\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/embed\/episode\/2FLXHDt41imipxn6g8d9fO?si=e9043ec418e7490b&#038;utm_source=oembed\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: Hi everyone! Welcome to another episode of Open World. As always, I&#8217;m Alexis, I&#8217;m here with Meli, with Lali.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Hi!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Hi, everyone!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: And in this episode, we&#8217;re gonna be talking about localization through the ages. We&#8217;ve called this episode \u201cLocalization Back to the Future\u201d because the localization industry\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Because I&#8217;m a huge fan of \u201cBack to the Future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: Okay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Come on, don\u2019t lie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: I was just gonna make something up\u2026 Yes, we&#8217;re all big fans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: That is the truth. We&#8217;re gonna be honest with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: So, I mean, nowadays, video games are expected to be well localized or expected to have some\u2026 We have standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: We have. What a great time to be alive, to be honest, because we have standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: We have standards in localization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: We&#8217;ve come a long way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: High standards. But that wasn\u2019t always the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: No. Dear God, no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: So we&#8217;re gonna take you from the 70\u2019s, 80\u2019s, 90\u2019s, 2000\u2019s to where we are today. But we&#8217;re gonna have fun today, we&#8217;re gonna show you some memes. With the magic of post-production, you guys are gonna see what we&#8217;re seeing on our tablets and everything. So let\u2019s start with the beginning. The beginning of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Big Ben.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: I think that it\u2019s safe to say that we can start in the 70\u2019s with, like, Pac-Man. Right? I mean\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: The classic example. The example that everyone gives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: If you guys have seen some of the content that we&#8217;ve created over the past few years, we&#8217;ve talked about Pac-Man. But, I mean, in a nutshell, not to go too far, not to go too long, Pac-Man, as we know it, wasn\u2019t always called like that, right? When it was invented, when it was created in Japan, the name of this popular character was Puck Man. P-U-C-K MAN. So, when the game was shipped to the U.S., it could get messy, and some wordplay could happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Like if you changed the P for an F.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: The P for an F, yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Yes, it would change the whole rating of the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Especially if it\u2019s a kids game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: It\u2019s a kids game, you don\u2019t want that. \u201cWhat are you playing? I&#8217;m playing\u2026 [bleep]\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Yes. Let\u2019s not\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: That-Man. \u201cI&#8217;m playing That-Man.\u201d Right. So they decided to change the name to what we know today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: It was a good call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: It was a good call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: It was brilliant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: It was brilliant. I mean, that was\u2026 We could say that it was the kick-off to\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Yeah, and I believe that nowadays, if you had the option, I don\u2019t think they would make it, because I think they would make it like in purpose to make it sound more fun, to be honest with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: But we&#8217;ve come a long way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: But back in the day\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: Back in the day, people weren&#8217;t ready for that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Now we&#8217;re ready. I think we&#8217;re ready now. But yeah, back in the day\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: Yeah. Who wants to take us to the 80\u2019s?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Yes, I can go. I think the 80\u2019s is when we started to see, like, some localization\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: An attempt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Yes, let&#8217;s say it that way. The lead was taken when Super Mario Bros started translating the packaging and the documentation into what we call FIGS, which is French, German\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Italian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Italian and Spanish. Yeah, so\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Yes. This is still called FIGS or EFIGS for these core languages for localization. And some games started translating the packaging, but the video games themselves weren&#8217;t yet localized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: Yes, manuals and\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Yeah. And I believe it had some sort of evolution right there, because we&#8217;ve seen like Super Mario going with a FIGS translation, and the Japanese video game developers wanted their games first in English, so that\u2019s why we have so many funny attempts and jokes to laugh about today because there was an attempt, they wanted that, they tried to copy that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: It wasn\u2019t professionalized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: They were going the right direction. They were like, \u201cLet\u2019s\u2026 We want to approach new markets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Yeah, and we want to thank you because, if it wasn\u2019t for them, we wouldn\u2019t be here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Yeah, exactly. When everyone was laughing at their games, and they were like, \u201cOh, this wasn\u2019t our intention. This was supposed to sound scary, and now everyone is laughing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: In a way, we could say that all of these individuals that tried, we can tell them, \u201cA winner is you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: A winner is you. Our first cute example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: Our first example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Oh, my God. And yeah, there is like a rendition\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: 86? Something like that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Yeah. There is a rendition of 2003 that is called Matrimelee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: Matrimelee, yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: When you win, there is like this huge thing that reads \u201cA winner is whom.\u201d And I don\u2019t know if they meant, like, to make the joke about \u201cThe winner is you.\u201d I wish it was like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: I wish it was like that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: I wish we could know. Can we, like, contact these people?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Do you know? If you know, please leave a comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: I&#8217;m so intrigued. Is it \u201cA winner is whom\u201d or \u201cA winner is you\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: A 2003 game, Matrimelee. If you guys know \u201cwhom\u201d did the game\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: The winner is whom?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Whom is the winner?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: Whom is the winner?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: And for everyone who is listening and not watching this episode, we are showing like screenshots of these games and their localization. We&#8217;re going to explain them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Yeah, we&#8217;re trying to read them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: Yes. And if you get this on the podcast version, we&#8217;re gonna talk to our folks who have the transcription so that you guys can see it as well. We&#8217;ll try to hook you up to have the same experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Yeah, exactly. So we have our next example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: \u201cConglaturation!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: \u201cConglaturation. You have completed a great game. And prooved\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: \u201cProoooved.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: \u201c\u2026the justice\u2026\u201d I said, \u201cjust ice.\u201d \u201c\u2026the justice of our culture. Now go and rest our heroes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: \u201cRest, our heroes!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: \u201cRest our heroes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: It sounds so creepy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: We need a comma there. Or something. \u201cGo rest our heroes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: You need to rewrite the entire paragraph, to be honest, from the \u201cConglaturations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: \u201cConglaturations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: That\u2019s a lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: The funny thing about it is, I mean, you can still understand it, you can still, like, get the message. But, of course, you know, it\u2019s just funny. It sounds funny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: But the interesting part is that it\u2019s in different platforms as well, because you even had localization in Game Boy. So that was a lot. But you have to remember to \u201cflash the toilet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: \u201cFlash.\u201d Do you wanna take a picture, Ale?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: You don\u2019t flush the toilet, you flash it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Like when you\u2019re playing Counter-Strike and you throw a flash to blind the enemy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: Fire in the hole!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Blind the toilet. Come on. It\u2019s so good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Yeah. Then we have this example that says\u2026 There\u2019s a soldier speaking, and he says, \u201cThat\u2019s what you say, but evil is good. Evil is the job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: \u201cEvil is the job.\u201d You had one job\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: You had one job, and it\u2019s evil? Oh, my God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: It\u2019s so profound. It sounds very like\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: It\u2019s so profound?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Exactly. Like, you know, \u201cEvil is the job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: Maybe they were trying to convey something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: The meaning of life is evil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: The other one was the culture, \u201cof our culture.\u201d Now \u201cevil is the job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: \u201cEvil is the job.\u201d I don\u2019t know, maybe, like, some kind of super-villain came out of this, just like, \u201cOh, my God, yeah, evil is the job. Yeah, I get it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: And then we have a classic, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Yes. This one is also a classic. \u201cAll your base are belong to us.\u201d This is also, I think\u2026 Yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Everyone knows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: Everyone knows about this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Yeah. And\u2026 I think we&#8217;re ready to move on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: The 80\u2019s, as we said, it started, but it was mostly seen properly done, professionally done in, like you said, manuals or things that weren&#8217;t in-game content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Yeah, because I believe the thing with this kind of examples that we have, we don\u2019t know what kind of technology they used. We don\u2019t know if they even had the technology\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: If any. Right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Yeah. So maybe it was like a huge lack of context. Maybe they were not professionals. Maybe they just knew a few words in the other language. So it\u2019s just like, I believe there are many factors that are involved in these attempts to localize a game. You can understand the meaning\u2026 the meaning\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Sometimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Sometimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: We left out quite a few. When we were doing the research for this episode, we left out quite a few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Because there were some\u2026 Some ones that we couldn\u2019t show on screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Yes. Definitely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: Too painful and too&#8230; And not appropriate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Not appropriate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Yeah. Yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Absolutely. But I think, I mean, it\u2019s good\u2026 Of course, we&#8217;ve learned from this, like, it has that positive side of, like, you know, you can\u2019t just have a random person that knows a little of a language have your game localized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: \u201cYou speak English? Help me translate this.\u201d This happens nowadays. This still happens, but we know better now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Yes, exactly. We know better now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Absolutely. Then we have the 90\u2019s. I mean, we have, like, the demand grows, we have a more sort of like a professional\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: More consoles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Yeah, more consoles, the industry is growing, everything is going massive, worldwide. But we still have some funny examples for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: Particularly memorable ones, because voiceover was installed, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Exactly, yeah. That\u2019s a really good point. I think it wasn\u2019t like\u2026 You know, it was needed, like, it was needed the localization, but it wasn\u2019t as professionalized yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: No, but the notion of that immersive experience and that the voices needed to accompany what you were reading started to appear. Like in this first example. Everyone who grew up in the 90\u2019s knows X-Men. The X-Men was massive. The theme song, everything. The arcades were growing. So we have an example here, it\u2019s a small clip of the X-Men arcade game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: We can play it now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: Yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MAGNETO<\/strong>: Ha, ha, ha, ha! X-Men, welcome to die!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: It\u2019s just like, such a complex character saying something like, \u201cX-Men, welcome to die!\u201d It\u2019s just like, oh, my God!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: That\u2019s a weird way of naming a waterfall, because he&#8217;s in a waterfall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Even the setting. Everything\u2019s just makes it hilarious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Everything is so confusing, like\u2026 \u201cOkay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: Memorable for the wrong reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: \u201cThank you for welcoming me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: To die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Yeah, absolutely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: So the next example that we have is from Dragon Master from 94. When you lose, Gloria just flat-out says that \u201cYou are a sucking baby.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: There you go!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: \u201cYou\u2019re a sucking baby.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: \u201c\u201cYou\u2019re a sucking baby for losing.\u201d Hey, maybe they tried to bleep\u2026 the word?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: To make it more accessible to all ages? But it\u2019s just so funny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: It\u2019s very appropriate, like, bad words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Appropriate for ages, but\u2026 No?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: \u201cIt\u2019s okay, you don\u2019t get a mature rating, but are you doing it right, buddy?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: \u201cIs that something people say?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: \u201cGloria, are you okay?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Yeah. \u201cDo you wanna talk about it, Gloria?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Oh, this one, I just love it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Please, please read it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: \u201cWhat did I had done!\u201d \u201cWhat did I had done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: So, let&#8217;s spell this one out for those that are listening to the podcast. \u201cWhat did I had done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: \u201cWhat did I had done.\u201d And the game is Eight Forces from 94.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: Yeah, it\u2019s an arcade game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: It\u2019s an arcade game. Yeah. I wonder if, like, arcade games just have a bit more, I don\u2019t know, like\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: But in the 90\u2019s, the arcades grew. I mean, we grew up with arcade games. We played more in arcades than in our homes, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Absolutely, yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: Maybe that\u2019s why they were like, \u201cHey, we need to ship these games to overseas. Translate them somehow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Yeah, to the arcades in Argentina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: \u201cWhat did I had done?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: The funny thing is that it was more accessible for everyone to get it at the arcade because everyone could play it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: Just get a couple of chips and go play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: And you get it. Yeah. So it\u2019s just like, there was this massive need for video games, and they tried to mass produce these kinds of translations. That\u2019s the problem because I don\u2019t think it was something that was well-thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Yeah, no, definitely. Definitely, it wasn\u2019t on their plans. We get that. Yeah, absolutely. But, Lari, you have to read this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Oh, my God, this one\u2019s my favorite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: Yeah, you go with this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Yeah. The game is called Touhou Reiiden. I don\u2019t know even the name of the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: The Highly Responsive to Prayers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: The Highly Responsive to Prayers, yes. From 1996. Instead of \u201churry,\u201d because you have to hurry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: Hurry up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: It says \u201charry.\u201d Like, are you talking about, like, Harry Potter? Harry Styles? What Harry areyou talking about?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Who\u2019s Harry? We wanna know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: And what it shows on the screen is an intense moment, that you surely need to hurry, and it just says \u201cHarry.\u201d It\u2019s like\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Is Voldemort back? Um\u2026 What do you mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Harry, please, we need you. Whoever you are, come to our rescue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: Harry, come sing. I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Yeah. Then, we move to another moment in history on our time machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: In our time machine, to the 2000\u2019s, right? So the localization has kind of established at this point, right? The localizators had tools, right? There were technological improvements made, like, I don\u2019t know, Monkey Island or Baldur\u2019s Gate. This was when the publishers truly realized that they needed to take localization seriously when they wanted to simship their game, which is basically releasing the game worldwide at the same time. They didn\u2019t\u2026 they couldn\u2019t patch it up anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Absolutely. Yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: But we still have some very good examples of how the dubbing was wrong, when\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Yeah, especially at the beginning of the 2000\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Yeah, because, I mean, we know, like, in the early 2000\u2019s, we&#8217;re coming from the 90\u2019s and these \u201charry up\u201d moments. Harry! Are you there, Harry? But\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Yeah. We have that example from the 2000\u2019s\u2026 Oh, it\u2019s this one. Which is also really funny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Yeah, it\u2019s so good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: \u201cWhat a polite young man she was!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: \u201cWhat a polite young man she was.\u201d Aha. It\u2019s inclusive!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: It\u2019s inclusive. They were ahead of their time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Yeah, but this is showing one of the biggest problems they had in the 2000\u2019s, right? The lack of context, the lack of materials, the lack of&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: Tools given to the translators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Yeah, the lack of tools, the lack of opportunities for these poor translators that had to do this job, to be honest with you, because can you imagine being in that situation? You don\u2019t actually know the gender of the person that is speaking. Maybe nowadays, with all this experience from the past, I think that\u2019s so valuable, you know? We can see how much everything has improved, how much you can take the gender out of that sentence, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: Yeah. Yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: But yeah, I mean\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: I think you traveled too far in time. We&#8217;re not there yet, Lali.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: I know, I know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: No, I&#8217;m just kidding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: It\u2019s just like, yeah, but it\u2019s funny to see these kinds of things because it\u2019s so good to see how we can learn from our mistakes. And yeah, nowadays, something that might have seemed like a real huge problem, we can laugh at it and have a really good time and learn from it and be like, yeah, this was good and this helped us to get here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: To get where we are. I mean, it wasn\u2019t easy, it wasn\u2019t something that happened\u2026 day to night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Overnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: Overnight. Thank you. But, I mean, we can laugh at the things that went wrong, and we learn from it. That way also it\u2019s the same, right? Content is king, right? But context is the queen. I mean, you need to have context for translators to work, and professional translators to do the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Yeah, and that\u2019s why sometimes it breaks me a little bit because, with everything that localization has come through, I still sometimes sit myself to play a video game and I still find translation mistakes. And it\u2019s just like, we should be so over this. And it breaks my heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: And not only in indie games, in triple A games as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Yeah. Yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: And just thinking also, like, localization as part of the process, like you were saying some minutes ago. Just know that, if you plan ahead, it\u2019s gonna be easier, it\u2019s just gonna be better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: It\u2019s going to be faster, it\u2019s going to be natural for the translators that are working on your game. Everything\u2019s going to run smoothly, and I think that\u2019s what you want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Yeah, especially like, you know, because the idea is that you can, you know, have your game played everywhere and that, you know, it has the same impact it has in the original language. And that\u2019s, you know\u2026 I think we have the tools nowadays to make that happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: It\u2019s comforting to know that, I mean, localization started as a patch, to some extent, you know? To solve a problem, right? Then, as an afterthought. But now we have workflows, we have ways to integrate everything from the get-go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Yeah, because I think they realized somehow, in this timeline, that there was a huge need for video games localized in the entire world, not in just these specific countries, you know?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Yes, as a business opportunity, you know? It\u2019s just like, you&#8217;re gonna be a lot more successful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Yeah. So that\u2019s why I think, like, they realized this, and it grew and it\u2019s trying to get better. And I wish someday, like, the localization part, I wish to see more translators in credits, too. I would love that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: That\u2019s the current issue. Yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: I wish to get localization included in the video game-making process, because it\u2019s so important. And the translators\u2019 job shouldn\u2019t go away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Of course. It\u2019s part of that visibility that we want to support in our industry, you know, and how important it is to have specialized translators in video games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: And make their work credit, like\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Absolutely, yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: You want to know that person that worked on that game because\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: It\u2019s very valuable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: It\u2019s a part of the game\u2019s development as well, especially with games having\u2026 I mean, they are as complex as movies or even more, so it\u2019s like, you have people working to make the game as you intended it to be in the language of the developer, to be the same experience in every language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: It\u2019s an art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: It\u2019s an art. So the fact that translators are not credited is a shame. But we are in 2023, the discussion is out there, publishers are making changes. Hopefully, hopefully, this won&#8217;t be a topic to discuss in the near future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Can we make an award for the best localized video game? So maybe they will encourage this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: Geoff Keighley, we&#8217;re talking to you. Game Awards 2023. Best localized video game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: It would be nice if our time machine would let us go to the future and see if this is not an issue anymore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Oh, my God, I know. Let\u2019s meet here in ten years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: I don\u2019t have more. But, I mean, in that spirit, I believe that that\u2019s it for our episode today. We&#8217;ve come a long way, there\u2019s still room for improvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Room for visibilization too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: Absolutely, yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: I&#8217;m guessing that, before 2025 \u2014I want to be optimistic\u2014 we might get that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Yeah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: Someone has to tag Geoff Keighley to\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Hey, and if you know some funny translations that we didn\u2019t add to this episode, please leave a comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: We want to watch them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>MELISA<\/strong>: We have so much fun seeing these.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: Yeah, we wanna laugh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: Yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: We also have a Discord channel, you can send them there, that is full of localizers and translators that might wanna laugh, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: We had a channel especially made for memes, so you can just share them there. Tag us, we wanna laugh with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>LARA<\/strong>: You can find the link down below. Please.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ALEXIS<\/strong>: That\u2019s it for today\u2019s episode. Thank you, guys. Thank you, everyone. See you in the next episode.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this episode, we\u2019ll embark on a journey through the history of video game localization from the very beginning. Fasten your seatbelts, this is Localization Back to the Future! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":4743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[116],"tags":[24,124,125,86,29],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/openworldvc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4739"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/openworldvc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/openworldvc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openworldvc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openworldvc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4739"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/openworldvc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4774,"href":"https:\/\/openworldvc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4739\/revisions\/4774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openworldvc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/openworldvc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openworldvc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/openworldvc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}